Chapter 50-Home alone
By: MysticFantasy
.
.
"You sure you're going to be alright by yourself?" Natasha asked. "No one will be back until midnight."
"I'll be fine, mom." sixteen year old James replied.
"I shall keep a close eye on him, Miss Romanoff." Jarvis added.
"I trust you, Jarvis." Natasha said as her husband walked over with her jacket. "Alright, James. We'll be back around midnight. There's plenty to eat but if you want to order pizza, you can. Remember, don't let anyone in that you don't know."
"I'll remember, mom." James insisted with a smile. "You and dad have fun."
"Try to have fun here by yourself." Steve said. "Just not too much fun. Not anything like Clint and Tony on New Years."
"I promise, dad, I won't do anything like that." James vowed.
"Ok. We'll see you in a few hours." Natasha said as she and Steve hugged their son and quietly left.
James lightly sighed when the elevator doors closed and the light showed it decending. He turned and headed back into the common room and just sprawled across the couch to continue watching the movie that had been playing.
"Sir, perhaps you would like to do something other than watch movies?" Jarvis suggested.
"Like what?" James asked. "Not much to do when you're alone."
"I find ways to pass my time until sir gets back." the AI replied. "Perhaps you would like to invite your cousins over and I can order you some large pizzas."
James lightly smiled. That did sound like a good idea. Being alone in the tower for nearly six hours did sound boring.
"Alright. Let's get the others here and get some pizzas on the way." he said.
"I shall contact the other Next Avengers right away and have the pizzas delivered." Jarvis said.
The red head then made his way to his room where he changed into blue jeans and a black shirt. After giving his hair a quick combing, James returned to the common room and waited for the others to arrive.
Only twenty minutes went by before the first showed up.
"Hey Francis." James greeted when the oldest of the Next Avengers arrived.
"Hey. Your parent's went out too?"
"Yep. They won't be back until midnight. We have the whole tower to ourselves." James answered.
"Sweet." Francis exclaimed. "My dad barely lets me have the house for more than two hours."
"After that party you had last summer, I can see why." James said with a smirk.
"Longest grounding I ever had but it was still worth it." Francis said with a smile. "So, when are the others getting here?"
"Should be here soon. Calls went out at the same time."
"The pizza?"
"Any minute."
Francis went over to the kitchen and grabbed two cans of soda. He tossed one to James when he came back to the living room.
"Man, your folks really trust you to have the place to yourself until midnight." Francis said before plopping onto the couch.
"They keep a close eye on me." James replied. "I can't afford to have them groud me like your dad grounded you."
"It was still worth it. Maybe you should try it. Come on, every person needs at least one blemish on their personal record."
"Really?"
"Hey, just because you're the son of Captain America, it doesn't mean you need to be as perfect as him. You're sixteen. It's the time for us to be living it up while we still can."
"That does sound...No. No way." James replied.
"Come on, man. We can get a lot accomplished in six hours. Small 'gathering' and clean up an hour before your parent's get back." Francis urged.
James bit his lower lip in thought. Looking back, he never really got into any kind of trouble. Never been grounded or anything. Never even gotten a single detention.
When it came down to it, his young years were down right dull. Maybe it was time to do something crazy.
"Alright. Let's do it." James declared.
.
l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l
l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l
.
Steve and Natasha were walking arm in arm back to the tower fifteen minutes before midnight. As the two came to the front doors of the tower, they noticed five teenagers leaving with large smiles on their faces and loud laughs.
The two Avengers found this strange but decided not to question it. They made their way inside and into the elevator. They pressed the button for the common floor which they were sure James would be.
The elevator stopped and the two walked out to see an empty floor.
"James?" Steve called.
"Dad?" James called out and came out from the kitchen. "You're back early."
"Just by a few minutes." Natasha said as Steve removed her coat for her. "So, what did you do all night?"
"Not much." James answered. "Had the cousins over for a while but they left about an hour ago."
Natasha quickly spotted something pink stuffed under the couch. She walked over, grabbed it and pulled it out to reveal a pink sweater.
"Did Torunn start wearing pink cashmere sweaters?" she asked as she looked over to her son with a suspicious look.
"Uh...yeah. She said she wanted to try something new." James said as he kept his eyes down.
"James Rogers," Natasha said with a firm tone. "You are just like your father. You cannot tell a lie to save your life. Where did this come from?"
James sighed heavily.
"Jarvis, pull up the video feed of the past several hours." Natasha ordered.
"Ok. It's not Torunn's." James quickly admitted. "Francis convinced me to let a few friends over. Most of them left about an hour ago. The last few just left before you got back."
"And what made you decide to go through with it?" Steve asked.
"I thought about the last few years and decided my teenage years were dull. I wanted to do something...crazy." James explained.
"Did anything happen that we should know about?" Steve asked. "Like maybe why someone is missing a sweater?"
"She was wearing a shirt under it!" James quickly stated.
"So, was it just a regular get together or a loud and crazy party?" Steve asked.
"Just a get together." James answered then looked at his parent's. "Am I in trouble?"
"Well, you tried to lie to us about what you did tonight." Natasha said and looked over to Steve who nodded. "You're grounded. Two weeks. No argument. Finish cleaning up in here and then go straight to bed."
"Yes, ma'am." James replied and walked back into the kitchen.
With that taken care of, the two parent's made their way to their floor and to their bedroom.
"I can't believe we just grounded our son." Steve said as he removed his tie. "He's never put us in a situation where we've had to do that."
"I think I know why he did it." Natasha said as she walked into their walk in closet to change.
"Why is that?" Steve asked while removing his shoes.
"Think about it." Natasha said, her voice a little muffled from being in the closet. "All his life, he's been a younger version of you."
"Is that bad?" Steve asked as he slipped into pajama clothes. Natasha walked out of the closet wearing a red tank top and black shorts.
"No." she answered. "But think about it. James has followed in your footsteps since he's been old enough to know who you are. He's been a good boy. Never done anything bad or gotten in any kind of trouble. He's never done anything wild and crazy. Maybe this was his one chance of being on the wild side."
"I see." Steve said with realization. "He wanted a moment as a real regular teenager."
"Exactly." Natasha said while pulling back the comforter. "It must be dull for him to always be the perfect son we raised him to be. To become the perfect teenage role model. To be the son of Captain America."
"You always make me the one he models himself after." Steve said with a small smile. "If you hadn't been there, I would have overlooked his little guilt give away. He's learned a lot about being sneaky from you. We both taught him well."
Natasha smiled.
"We did." she agreed as they turned out the lights and crawled into bed.
.
l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l
l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l~*~*~*~*~*l
.
James finished the last of the dishes with a small smile on his face.
Francis was right. he thought to himself. It was worth it.